


drabbles and poems - serious

by fileg



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: General, Multi-Age
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2003-08-12
Packaged: 2018-03-22 21:01:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3743408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fileg/pseuds/fileg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>short pieces in one place</p><p>Updated November 24, 1003</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Eärrámë

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

Wind whipped the waves to froth, whitecaps dancing like silver slippers across the blue, the green, the grey – the sacred singing sea.

Wind filled our sail and wrapped it like a lover’s arms about the mast. Wind lifted her golden hair, the seabirds and our hearts.

Sunlight leaned to kiss the scurrying waves with sparkle; brilliance. Sunlight kissed my shoulders and hands, the back of my neck.

What man ever had such lovers? Love rushes in like the tide, love from above and below, love you can submerge in.

Where are we going? We are going to sea …  



	2. Perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short pieces in one place

I’m not much given to thinking about big things in the course of a usual day. Fact is, I like routine, the security of repetition, having a “regular” way to fall back on.

But in my own way, I think about big things all the time. Really big things - shoots of new green life that mean the earth still believes in spring; the beautiful sigh of a new keg of ale being opened; how roads go there, and back again.

I took a deep breath, and one more step… and was the farthest I had ever been from home.  



	3. Beguiled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short pieces in one place

  
Beguiled

Even before our blood rode down from the north, my people lived in a bond with their sacred ground.

On the night of the first planting moon, a woman with the magic of “the voice” would sing alone to the fields. Clad in a white shift, red gold hair and moonlight, she poured forth our hopes like water. She danced barefoot on the fresh-turned earth to the beat of her body’s drum – each beat a footstep, a heartbeat, a pulse.

I don’t know why I should dream of that tonight, just because I danced at a wedding and became ensorcelled.

 

 

*******

 

This is for Nessime, if she will have it. See her lovers in [_If Ever Two Were One._](http://henneth-annun.net/members/works/chapter.cfm?STID=1252)


	4. cywydd llosgyrnog / faramir

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short pieces in one place

  
In dreams, I searched for my heart’s beat  
each note was separate and discrete,  
incomplete. Yet from afar  
came echoes, answering, that seemed  
to know the answers I had dreamed  
all redeemed by love’s northstar


	5. drabble  FoTR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short pieces in one place

The Great River

Under the moon’s white rind we glide, ripples in the great river. Wrapped in elf-cloaks and our own thoughts, we become invisible. Eyes gleam in dark water. Bereft of guidance, we finally learn to share what we know.

We pretend to have made no decisions, submitting to Anduin’s will.

Wings haunt us, waking and dreaming. Swans cry dark re-birth; eagles soar, unconcerned for earthbound travelers. Yet when the dark stoops for the kill — we rally, crowned with stars.

Hope surges under the gaze of the kings, but we will never make this decision. Fate calls; we will be swept away.


	6. drabble TTT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short pieces in one place

**Journey To The Cross-Roads**

Silence gathers; darkness harries the land. Our moment of peace has passed, vanishing with Gondor’s grace into a misty dream.

We mark the stations of the cross-roads. Our road is dark, yet once it ran from the Tower of the Moon to the Citadel of the Stars… lights in blackness.

Storm screams at my back; my fate fawns at my feet — but I have taken the hand of friendship unlooked-for; seen sunlight seek the face of faithfulness.

And I have seen the king, crowned with stars rising from the rich dark earth, still watching our path.

They cannot conquer for ever!  



	7. grace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short pieces in one place

  
grave grace given  
grace received

three times turning  
in a hallowed place

I have been delivered  
by the glance of  
grey-eyed grace


	8. drabble RoTK

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short pieces in one place

The Passing Of The Grey Company

 

A heartbeat of horses delivers, unasked, the heart’s desire. Of all joys, this is the least expected.

Young, old and ageless; rangers, maidens and kings — we expose our throats to the wolves of darkness; tread the paths of fear. Hope re-forged as faith, we look the Shadow in the eye; draw our weapons and its wrath.

We know not to what end we ride; only that we must go on.

Every heart bears a banner whose device no-one else can see. We all must stand where our oaths have bound us. But soon, we shall fulfill them and be free.


	9. drabble Silmarillion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short pieces in one place

Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin  
(red sky at morning, sailor take warning…)

 

The beating of swan-wings opened his heart to the soul of the sea.

Standing wave-girt on the strand, he embraced both brother and fate, and passed through the Mountains of Shadow.

Hope stopped at seven gates, whispering a secret name to each - but even the voice of a god could not make them believe. Darkness burrowed beneath the ivory walls; a mole in Gondolin’s garden. Soon the White Tree’s golden flowers would fall, ragged petals like tears flowing down Sirion’s face.

Death.

But before he followed the swans-wing home, the sea sparkled and gave birth to the evening star.


	10. snapshot: Smoke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short pieces in one place

Strider, wrapped in his traveling cloak, stretched his long legs out and chewed the stem of his pipe happily, watching the moving clouds with the practiced eye of a ranger. Gimli, sitting upright, cradled the bowl of his pipe like a goblet of wine, and sucked the stem in quick, short breaths, letting smoke roll from his nose like steam. Merry drew slow, savoring drafts, rolling the smoke around delicately before opening his mouth to let it escape in its own time. Pippin, eyes closed in enjoyment, tapped his bottom lip between pulls, as though reluctant to let the precious stuff get too far away while he relished the taste and texture of visible, taste laden breath.

Legolas sighed, a great exaggerated sigh, and stared down at his companions, shaking his head sadly. â€œI came outside to see what news the wind and sky carried. Alas, they carry only the tale that Longbottom Leaf masks even the voice of nature.â€

Somehow, that made everyone decide to exhale at once, and Legolas found himself standing like a mist-shrouded mountain above their smoke-wreathed heads.

â€œElves!â€ grumbled the dwarf, companionably as Legolas turned to hide the smile that had stolen across his fair face.


	11. snapshot: Flame of The West

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short pieces in one place

The visitors had gone inside, leaving what seemed an armoury leaning against the wall â€” elven bow, crossed as though defended by dwarven axe; knives, bone handled, lying awthart a blade out of ancient stories. Still, every eye was drawn to the long sword in its dark elven sheath that a legend come to life had carefully placed to stand apart.

â€œThreats seem a poor way for a king to begin,â€ grumbled one of the guards, and Hama, the doorwarden, turned to glare.

â€œNo threat you heardâ€ he barked. â€œHe spoke only truth, to save your miserable life. â€˜Death shall come to any man that draws Elendil's sword save Elendil's heir.' The power is in the blade itself â€“ can you not feel its wyrd, even where you stand?â€

The men nodded and edged away, huddling at the door. Lightning pricked along their skin, and every man knew the King had returned.


	12. drabble: Before The Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short pieces in one place

  
â€œHe stood upon the bridge alone  
and Fire and Shadow both defied;â€

Frodo faltered. Sorrow welled up like shadow and flame. Pain, searing hot tried to deny him even the comfort of offering these words â€“ meager, but all he had been able to give.

The strength to go on came like the clasp of a hand on his shoulder. Narya, whose strongest power had always been to kindle the fire in the heart, blazed. For the briefest of moments, the pain had no power...

â€œhis staff was broken on the stone,â€ he managed at last.  
â€œin Khazad-dum his wisdom died.


	13. drabble: At Risk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short pieces in one place

â€œWhere's Frodo?â€ Merry asked, but that is not what my heart heard. Turning, my eyes found your shield, carried so long, leaning alone in the place where I thought you to be.

Scattered, divided, leaderless, my companions dispersed in all directions. What had made me think I could hold them together? Faith? Will? Love?

When I heard the high wail of the horn, I threw myself headlong into the fight, desperately trying not to see that I had already failed.

Why did you go off without me? After so long, what made you pick this moment to leave your shield behind?


	14. drabble: Erech

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short pieces in one place

Tattered shreds of cloud streak the sky where the dark rends the heavens in its spectral hands. The dead pour through the rents like drops of oily rain.

Terror rises in the bitter wind that wraps shredded grave goods across our faces, the taste of ash cloying in the mouth, choking in the back of the throat.

Why ride on to destruction when we might surrender here, bodies dissolving, souls scattered on a storm that howls with the mouths of the dishonorable dead.

But the darkness is no match for the power concealed in the black banner of the king.


End file.
